Fewer and fewer professionals want to become leaders

Do employees in Germany lose the desire for leadership? A survey available to SPIEGEL suggests that. As a result, many professionals do not want to be leaders or do not believe in ever becoming one.

Employees in Germany increasingly want to become bosses. This emerges from a representative survey of the Initiative Chefsache, which is available to SPIEGEL. In September, about 5,000 employees and students were interviewed. The Initiative Chefsache is a network of executives that aims, among other things, to promote equal opportunities for men and women. The patron is Chancellor Angela Merkel. The survey was written by the German opinion research institute Civey.

The central finding of the survey: Only 40 percent of men and 33.7 percent of women want to take on a leadership position in their company. In February 2018 - at that time the survey was conducted for the first time - 45.1 percent of men and 37.5 percent of women still wanted it. How old the respondents were, Civey did not break open. The sample was weighted to be representative of factors such as gender or income.

More support from employers

Both men and women feel better supported by their bosses in their career aspirations than before. In addition, nearly half of all women surveyed (45.3 percent) said that their employer helped them to work flexibly without any time and space limitations. 18.7 percent of women stated that they were confronted with prejudice about their gender in their job. Half a year ago, 23.7 percent said that.

The reasons for the lack of interest in the chief post are not clear from the survey. "Leadership tasks are becoming increasingly demanding," said Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke, CEO of the sunscreen manufacturer Warema and a member of the Initiative Chefsache. It was therefore an active decision of the employees not to want to live in this field of tension. "Career is no longer automatically associated with personnel management," said Renkhoff-Mücke the SPIEGEL.